The Beilun River is narrow. On one bank sits Dongxing in Guangxi, and on the other lies Mong Cai in Vietnam. This boundary river has witnessed both the flames of war and the tides of commerce. A century ago, it served as a vital lifeline in times of crisis. Today, it stands as China's frontline for opening up to ASEAN. On September 15, a media group under the "What Makes China: The Canal's Light" online theme campaign visited Nanning and Dongxing, tracing this historical thread to explore the southwestern frontier firsthand.
A digital Silk Road unfolds from Nanning. Guangxi's opening-up strategy begins with data at its core. The China-ASEAN Information Harbor, a national-level platform, has been integrated into four major national development plans, with a clear mission: to connect data, technology, and industry between China and ASEAN. The platform is currently tackling pressing issues, including cross-border data flows, minority language translation, and cloud migration for traditional factories. A regional big data trading and credit service system is under construction, while artificial intelligence and cloud computing solutions are already being exported to ASEAN. Digital cooperation has emerged as the most dynamic facet of Guangxi's engagement with ASEAN.
An ASEAN Expo that never ends operates in Nanning as a tangible window to the outside world: the China-ASEAN Commodity Hub. Its model is straightforward: an online digital platform paired with an offline immersive exhibition space, with the goal of offering a 365-day experience. The park houses 18 themed pavilions covering all ten ASEAN nations, RCEP member states, and Belt and Road partner countries, bringing together their cultural landscapes and key industries under one roof. Thousands of cross-border products have already moved in, and hundreds of online and offline economic, trade, and cultural events have been held. Supporting services such as cross-border consulting, resource matchmaking, and brand empowerment are being rolled out in tandem. The China-ASEAN Expo lasts only a few days each year, and this hub aims to spread that dividend across every single day.
A canal that unlocks a millennium-old bottleneck. What truly reshapes Guangxi's open-door framework is water. The Pinglu Canal, a core project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, solves a chronic problem: Guangxi's rivers flow but do not reach the sea. Once the canal opens to navigation, it will provide the southwestern region with the shortest and most economical river-sea intermodal route to ASEAN, shortening shipping distances and cutting costs. Goods flowing between the inland southwest and the ASEAN market will move more smoothly, with bulk agricultural products and industrial materials among the direct beneficiaries. A comprehensive transportation network integrating river-sea connectivity and multimodal freight, alongside digital corridors, border gateways, and trade platforms, these elements complement one another. Only when hard infrastructure is in place can industrial chain integration become a tangible reality.
A century-old letter carries a family's and a nation's story. Dongxing's history begins with a letter from home. After the Pacific War broke out, all coastal channels in China were sealed off, leaving Dongxing, positioned on the Sino-Vietnamese border, as a rare hub for external communication. A secret overseas Chinese remittance route was established, linking Southeast Asia with the mainland. What was this overseas Chinese letter? It was both a message from overseas compatriots to their homeland and remittances supporting their families. A single sheet of paper connected livelihoods and longing across the divide. This winding cross-border lifeline supported domestic dependents while steadily transporting overseas aid materials to China, providing tangible support for the victory in the War of Resistance. Today, the Dongxing Overseas Chinese Letter Museum displays more than a hundred historical documents and artifacts, preserving the spirit of integrity, perseverance, and family-and-nation solidarity at the border.
The port has transformed from a lifeline into a smart gateway. At the national gate, the Flag Street, the No. 5 Boundary Marker, and the Ho Chi Minh Pavilion together narrate Dongxing's century-long border history. For over twenty years, merchants in Dongxing have voluntarily flown the five-star red flag, and the kilometer-long street, draped in fluttering banners, has become a unique border spectacle. The mixed-architecture streets brim with shops and lively everyday energy. The century-old No. 5 Boundary Marker records the history of modern border surveying, while the Ho Chi Minh Pavilion preserves memories of traditional Sino-Vietnamese exchanges. The port itself has seen even greater changes. As a core customs channel co-built by China and Vietnam, the Beilun River Second Bridge has officially opened, effectively easing traffic pressure. The port has been granted multiple special commodity supervision qualifications, and in 2024, it was recognized as one of China's first "International Health Land Ports." Freight volumes and vehicle traffic have grown steadily in recent years. Smart port projects are accelerating, bringing digital, intelligent oversight that makes customs clearance faster. From a wartime lifeline to today's smart port, Dongxing has achieved this transformation in less than a century.
A boundary river can divide two nations, but it cannot sever a shared history of exchange. A century ago, overseas letters carried the weight of "a letter from home worth its weight in gold"; today, the digital Silk Road carries the message of "a shared future." What makes China? Perhaps the answer lies in this very land, where what changes is the path, yet what never changes is a nation's gaze, always toward the sea, always toward the world.